


Jake Gets a Tight Knit Family: The Preparation

by SheWantsItAll



Series: Jake Gets a Tight Knit Family [2]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Descriptions of child abuse, Foster Care, Good Dads Whizzer and Marvin, Hurt/Comfort, Jake's Tragic Backstory, Little bit of anxiety, M/M, Weekend Fun, open communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWantsItAll/pseuds/SheWantsItAll
Summary: Jason spends the weekend with two thirds of the dad squad and they talk about the possibility of becoming a foster family.Marvin and Whizzer read Jake's file and a final decision is made.
Relationships: Whizzer Brown/Marvin
Series: Jake Gets a Tight Knit Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100567
Comments: 12
Kudos: 31





	Jake Gets a Tight Knit Family: The Preparation

**Author's Note:**

> Marvin's goofy good morning song is a Jason version of song that my mum sang to me as a child. It's set to the tune of happy birthday! 
> 
> (Also, the title may change... I really like the way I title for first grade Jason- it just makes things easier and I usually think they're pretty cute- and I'm trying to come up with something like that to use here!)

Marvin couldn't sleep. All he could think about was Jake, stuck somewhere he wasn't taken care of. Somewhere he wasn't safe. Somewhere that he didn't feel loved. Had he ever really felt loved?

He tried to keep his restless limbs still, not wanting to disturb Whizzer, who was somehow sound asleep and snoring quietly in his ear. He laid there, as still as could be, and did everything he could to try to fall asleep. Nothing seemed to help, so he carefully extricated himself from Whizzer's arms, grabbed his phone, and headed to the living room. 

It was nearly five in the morning, which, he thought, was as good a time as any for soul searching and self reflection and general worrying. He hoped that they were making the right decision. When they went and got certified they had done so with the knowledge that they would probably wait until Jason was older, and even then they hadn't imagined they would be taking in a child who was his age and one of his best friends. 

He really, _really_ hoped that Jason would be on board, but he was worried that he wouldn't be- he was quite accustomed to being the only child in the family, and thus, the center of attention. The other worry was that he would be excited and on board with the way things looked on paper, but then be upset when it became a reality and he wasn't an only child _or_ the center of attention anymore. 

He pulled up their state's foster care guidelines and read through them again. They had prepared and done their home visits when they were certified, but that had been years ago. They would probably need to brush up- make sure that the cleaning products were secure and the glass door had a mark at first grader eye level to prevent any accidents. They would definitely need to get the spare bedroom ready for a six year old. 

He pulled the quilt off the back of the couch and wrapped up in it, regretting leaving the warmth of their bed and Whizzer’s arms. A quilt and the couch was a sad substitute, but at least this way he wasn't keeping him up too. He scrolled through various online articles, distracted by wishing that he knew more about what Jake liked and how they should be thinking to decorate. Whizzer would probably have lots to say about that, and maybe Jason could let them know what he likes and help decorate some. It would be good to get him involved- if he was willing to share them, of course. 

He curled up on his side and scrolled through never ending foster care articles, wishing that he knew more about the situation, and wishing that they could fix it all. 

He must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew Jason had plopped down on top of him and the apartment smelled like waffles. He sat up, wincing a bit as his back complained and wrapped his arms around his sleep ruffled child. 

"Good morning to you, good morning to you, good mooooorrrrrrrning little Jacey Bean, good morning to you!" He sang, slightly off-key, but making up for his voice with enthusiasm, before kissing the top of his head, happy to have him deloused. "Did you sleep good, kiddo?" 

Jason grinned, overjoyed by Daddy's silly song. He hugged him tightly and nodded, "Papa's making waffles."

"Wow. He un-liced us in the middle of the night and now he's making waffles? We must be _really_ special this weekend." 

His smile grew impossibly wider "I'm _always_ special on the weekend," 

Marvin smiled. Jason’s confidence that he was loved and cared for and so very special to his family was unmatched- he didn’t necessarily need to be reminded of it, but it was one of the many aspects of parenthood that brought Marvin so much joy. "And all the rest of the time, right?"

He giggled and hugged him tighter, "Right."

"Don't you forget it."

~~~

They had a fairly typical Saturday. They had wonderful waffles for breakfast, went to the park to play, took a slight detour for Jason to ice skate, and were now piled up on the couch together watching Frozen. 

Marvin had been thinking about bringing their idea up all day, becoming more and more anxious about it the longer he waited. What if he hated them for even asking? What if he felt pressured into it and they moved forwards with the process and then he hated them later?

"Hey Jason..." His eyes flicked over to Whizzer who smiled and took his hand, offering the silent support he needed without a second thought. Marvin smiled back. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "we wanna talk to you about something, see what you think.."

Jason's face lit up. One of the things about being six years old was that people don't usually care what you think. All his grownups did, because they're the best, but he wasn't in on every decision. So when he was it was exciting. "What is it??" he asked, bouncing slightly on the couch in his excitement. 

"Remember last night, how you told us that your friend was hurt when he came to school yesterday?"

Jason nodded, face falling back into the stoic expression he'd had talking about the situation the night before. He nodded. 

"We wanted to know if you would... Well... What you would think about," he sighed in frustration. This was the moment. What if he hated the idea? What if he thought he liked it now and then later he hated it? What if he hated them for even suggesting it?

Whizzer jumped in, saving the day as always, "We were wondering how you would feel about Jake coming to stay with us?"

"Really!?" He was grinning again, his face as bright as the sun. "Like a sleepover?!" 

Jason has wanted to have his friend over on the weekend since the day they met, but because of state regulations it hadn't been possible, their next option would be for Jason to go stay with Jake and his grownups, but his parents had collectively decided against it, concerned about sending him off with someone who none of them knew. 

Marvin smiled. That boy wanted a sleepover _so_ badly. "Mmm.. not quite, baby. He would stay and live with us all the time, even when you go to Momma and Pop's," 

"So... He wouldn't have to go back to those mean people?" his smile was impossibly wider. 

"That's true. He would stay with us until his biological parents are ready for him to go home with them," he started, needing Jason to know that reunification was the goal in foster care, and it wasn’t a promise of forever. "Or if that doesn't happen, he might be staying with us longer."

"Like... Forever?" 

Marvin nodded. "Like forever. You don't have to tell us right now... You can have some time to think about it, and if you have any questions we'll try to answer them,"

"So... He would stay all the time?" Jason was happy for the chance to ask questions. He had lots of questions. 

"Yes. He would be ours just like you are, until his bio parents are ready for him to go home,"

"Or maybe forever?" 

"Or maybe forever." 

"But why would he stay here all the time? Why wouldn't he go to Momma and Pop with me?"

"Well, buddy, because you go there to stay with them because they're your family too, right?" 

"Mhm,"

"But if Jake came to live with us, then we would be his... temporary family, until his bio parents are ready for him. Momma and Pop wouldn't really be involved."

"Oh," Jason was quiet for a few seconds, pondering what he had learned, "Would you still... What if... What if you love him more?" he asked quietly, sounding remarkably like Marvin in his nervous state, the words tumbled out of him before he could stop them, and he quickly buried himself into Daddy's side, feeling suddenly insecure. 

"Oh baby, Never." He felt one pair of arms wrap around him and another warm hand rub gentle circles on his back. He didn’t come out of hiding, but he felt better almost instantaneously. "You're absolutely irreplaceable, Jason. We just think that we have enough love to share with another kiddo too, and there a lot of other kids just like your friend who's grown ups... need some help, who could use some of that love."

He thought about Jake. About how he got hurt a lot and never had a snack to bring to school. About how he didn't have a lot of clothes, and how they always smelled like smoke. He thought about how he always looked sad. Daddy and Papa would probably make him less sad. Being with them _always_ made Jason feel less sad. Plus, if Jake lived with Daddy and Papa then that meant that they could have a sleepover _every single weekend._

He pulled his face out of Marvin's shirt and scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand, "I think you should do it," 

"Are you sure?” Whizzer asked, “You know it means you'll have to share, right?" 

"My room? I don't use it during the week anyway, I don't mind..."

Marvin smiled. He’d have to send that one to the group chat- between the four of them, they had to be doing something right. He was so kind. 

"No, kiddo. Not your room... we'll change the spare room to be for him. But... The attention. We're always going to have time for you, buddy, and we're always going to be here to love you and help you and keep you safe. But if we do this, when he comes it's going to take some time to adjust, and he might need a lot of our help," 

"That's okay...I can share. I'm good at sharing, it was on my report card, remember?" 

"I remember." Marvin kissed his head. "I want you to think about it some more though, alright? And tell us tonight if you still want to." 

"Okay," Jason didn't move from his spot and snuggled down more in between them. "Can we watch the movie now??"

~~~

That night, it was decided. Jason was even more sure that Jake should come live with them than he had been earlier that day. It took twice as long to get him to sleep as it usually did, he was so excited to tell them about all the things that they could do together on the weekends. 

Jason filled them in on Very Important Things, like Jake's favorite color (blue) and favorite animal (whales) and favorite shape (stars). 

Knowing that Jason was excited made everything feel right. They were making the right decision. It was okay to look forward to the process now. It felt safe to start planning. That night, they sent an email to their foster care agency, explaining their situation and requesting that Jake be placed with their family. They got to work immediately after Jason was sound asleep enough that their quiet stirring wouldn't wake him up. 

They first started checking back over the list of home safety regulations, so that they could be ready for any inspection as soon as possible. Most everything was already done because of Jason, but there were a few things to do. They needed to cover all of their electrical outlets, something that hadn't been done since Jason was itty bitty, and write/print a written emergency plan in case they needed to evacuate the building, and secure all of the cleaning chemicals. Then there was the matter of a bedroom.

The way that their guest room was set up was technically suitable and within guidelines, but it was incredibly boring for a six year old boy. They got to work almost immediately, so that once they had a file and some more information they could start redecorating. This meant stripping the room of almost everything. They decided that most of it would have to be donated- if it didn’t have a space in their spare bedroom, there certainly wasn’t a place for it anywhere else in the apartment. They worked together efficiently, disassembling furniture and pulling decorations off the walls. 

By the time they were satisfied with their work for the night it was almost midnight, but the contents of the room had been sorted into two small piles in the middle of the room, ready to be relocated somewhere else or taken away to a charity after their weekend with Jason was over. 

Marvin got the call from Jake’s new social worker, Isaiah, early Monday morning. The wheels were already turning and Jake’s case was being transferred to his caseload. They made a plan for the apartment to be checked over Wednesday afternoon, and if everything went as planned, he would bring Jake to them after school on Thursday. He brought a paper copy of Jake’s bulging file over at lunch, so that the pair could talk things over overnight and make sure that they knew what they were getting into and still wanted to go through with it. 

Monday night found them curled up on the couch, huddled together with the file between them and tears in their eyes. The kid had been through so much. Too much. More than any person should have to go through in an entire lifetime, let alone in six years. 

He had been born early and addicted to cocaine. He obviously couldn't go home with his bio mom, Emma, and she couldn't even tell the hospital or the police who his biological dad was. After a lengthy stay in the NICU, he was placed with a young couple who had been trying to have a baby without success. 

By all accounts he had been happy and healthy and safe there. His previous social worker reported that he had bonded with his foster parents seamlessly, and there had been discussion of the possibility of adoption, until his bio mom refuses to give up her parental rights. He was with them for more than three years, but when his foster mother became pregnant with triplets through IVF, the couple had quickly decided that they wouldn't be fostering anymore and Jake had been removed and relocated. 

After he was forced to leave his first, and only home, he was bounced from placement to placement. He didn't stay anywhere for more than a few months. There weren't any reports of anything sinister, but there _were_ many notes that he was very withdrawn and tended to lash out when they tried to connect with him. That he just wasn't "the happy child" they expected him to be. 

Whizzer let his head fall into Marvin's shoulder, his floppy position not reflecting the alarm and frustration clear in his voice, "Of course he wasn't happy. The only family he'd ever known kicked him out like he was nothing. They should have been trying to get him help- not just passing him to the next person…" 

"Keep reading.. It gets worse,"

Indeed it did. After several incredibly unstable months, his bio mom regained custody. It seemed that she had managed to put her life back together: she had gone to rehab, gotten clean, and managed to secure a stable living situation and a job. After many weeks of uncomfortable visitation, Jake moved home with her. They had difficulties, of course. The file told them that he had really struggled to bond with her- the person he knew as Mom had abandoned him and he really struggled to trust this random lady who suddenly insisted that he call _her_ Mom. He didn’t even know her. 

He lived with her for a year and a half. They were fine for a while, but things got bad when check ins from his former social worker became less frequent and Emma lost her job. Her ex-boyfriend moved back in and soon they were living together and using together. Jake had been pulled out of daycare when she lost her job, and with the social worker less present they were largely unsupervised. The foster care agency thought everything was fine- which is why it was such a shock when 911 was called because Emma had overdosed, and even more of a shock when paramedics heard crying coming from the locked coat closet and opened it to find a very thin, very dirty (almost) five year old. 

There was, of course, an investigation. They never got to the bottom of exactly how long she had been using, or how long he had been so severely neglected. He lived in a group home during the trial and started kindergarten while he was there. He was sent to therapy weekly but refused to talk to the therapist nearly every session. If he had been withdrawn when he was removed from his first placement, he had absolutely shut down after being removed from his bio mom's "care". He was nearly mute and had horrible nightmares. The other boys in the group home often picked on him and he failed to build any sort of bond with any of them. The home was overcrowded and understaffed, leaving no one to try to build a relationship of any kind with any of the boys there. 

There was no one to help him with or care about his school work, and when his kindergarten teacher suggested that he be retained, she was met with disagreement from his social worker, who was overwhelmed with work and had him confused with another child, insisted he was fine to move on. He started first grade at the same school where he had gone to kindergarten, but transferred months after the start of the school year when he was placed with a family in another school district. 

He bounced from house to house- he had been safe in all of them, but each one fell through because he didn't get along with other children in the home, or he refused to engage with the adults. He wasn’t intentionally difficult, but he just… couldn’t seem to put forth the effort to bond with a person who was just going to dispose of him when things didn’t go the way they anticipated. He _really_ struggled with his school work, and his first report card showed that he "needed improvement" in nearly all academic areas. There were notes from his teacher, the famous Mr. McKinley, that he _knew_ Jake was capable, that he just needed some extra help at home to make it happen. He had even offered to help himself, before or after school. 

His most recent attempt at a “permanent” placement had been disastrous- he started showing up at school with bruises. There were several reports from the school, but his original social worker reported that she had investigated and found no reason to remove him. He had been there for almost three months the day he went to school with a bruise covering his little cheek and crying almost inconsolably. A final, desperate report was made, this time going over the social worker’s head and to her supervisor. An internal investigation was opened, Jake was assigned a new social worker, and was immediately removed and placed with an “emergency caregiver” until they could find him a new placement. 

In his short six years he had been in eleven homes. He had been mistreated and neglected and physically abused. He had been left behind after being promised he would be loved. 

Marvin, ever the worrier, spoke first. “What if… What if this is too much for us? We’ve never done this before. What if we mess him up even more?”

“You really think that we could be worse than any of what we just read? Marvin we _have_ to do this. You want to. I want to. Jason thinks we should do it. The kid needs a not terrible family and _we’re_ a not terrible family.” Whizzer’s voice was filled with a determination that Marvin didn’t think he had ever heard from his husband. 

He smiled, relieved that he hadn’t pressured him into it, especially since he was the one who brought it up in the first place. “You really think we can really do this?” he asked, feeling much better about the future, but still needing that reassurance. 

“Together? Of course.”

That was all it took. He sent Isaiah a quick email: _We’ll be ready for our home check Wednesday._

**Author's Note:**

> Jake's story is fictional and isn't based on any one real person, but many of his experiences are based on different things I've read/watched/heard from my students. The foster care system in America is deeply flawed, but there ARE good foster families, and I want this story to reflect both the good and the bad. 
> 
> This was a LOT of exposition, but I promise next time it will be more narrative. This idea got away from me a bit and I have so many plans. 
> 
> I hope everyone is doing well! Be safe and wash your hands 💖💖💖


End file.
